Elect face frustration, longing as virus restrictions postpone Rites of Initiation

Courtesy photo/Dustin Pollock

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Dustin Pollock, pictured at the Cathedral of the Madeleine with his wife, Vickie, after he participated in the Rite of Election on Feb. 29, looks forward in faith to his baptism.

LAYTON — For much of his life, Dustin Pollock felt anchorless, rudderless, blown by whatever winds moved through his life. Although his parents were baptized in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they did not practice the faith, and he grew up without any religion. This left him to navigate the storms of life truly alone, he said. That’s how his life went until three years ago, when the Catholic faith unexpectedly began to mean something to him.

Seven years ago, Pollock was the divorced single father of a son and a daughter. Then he began to date Vickie. As the relationship grew more serious, and ultimately led to marriage four years ago, Pollock sought ways to show his support for the woman he loved. One of those was attending Mass with her so she would not have to go alone. At first, Pollock mostly tuned out as he sat in the pew with his wife, he said. That lack of participation changed three years ago one Sunday right after Easter as he attended Mass with Vickie.

“All of a sudden I felt this feeling like the warmest hug you could ever have in your entire life,” he said.

Recognizing the love of God, Pollock began to be engaged during Mass. He sought out the RCIA program in his home parish of St. Rose of Lima, and for the last three years he has steadily made his way through the curriculum. The path has not been easy, but he and Vickie have traveled it together. For Dustin to be baptized and for Vickie to receive the Eucharist again, their former marriages needed to be addressed. The process took a considerable amount of time. Dustin received a decree from the diocese declaring that his previous marriage lacked canonical form. Vickie, who was previously married in the Church, was granted an annulment so that she could receive Communion again.

The wait was hard, Pollock said. He saw other people take the path to baptism less than seriously and others who seemed to take receiving the Eucharist for granted, which was painful for him, he said. Why, he wondered, could they not grasp the precious nature of the gifts they were receiving, gifts that he himself longed for? Finally, earlier this year, it seemed like everything was coming together. Pollock waited for his official letter from the diocese informing him that he was worthy to be baptized, but it didn’t come. As the Rite of Election drew near, his pastor, Father Clarence Sandoval, gave him permission to participate in the rite, assuring him that the letter would come.

“‘Dustin, to me, you are already Catholic because you are doing what you need to do, and it’s more than what other people do,’ he said to me,” Pollock said.

On Feb. 29, Pollock, without having received the letter, joined other catechumens in the Rite of Election at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. The experience moved him.

“I think I cried all the way down the aisle, just to hear my name being called,” he said.

The long-awaited letter from the diocese arrived a week later. “It was one of the greatest moments of my life,” Pollock said of opening the letter. “Then we just cried together; not out of sadness but out of ‘we’re moving forward.’”

“Everyone in RCIA was just ecstatic; I sent emails out to everyone 10 minutes after I received it,” he added.

Pollock was joyfully looking forward to Easter and his baptism when the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States. In Utah the governor ordered the temporary cessation of all public worship.

It was a definite blow, Pollock said. “It felt like we were starting all over again. Mass means so much to me now, and we go every Sunday; now not to go is really hard.”

He is in the presence of the Lord when he attends Mass, Pollock said. “There’s so much love. I don’t have to worry about anything that may be going on in my life during Mass. I just have to participate and be one with everyone else.” With the current prohibitions on social gatherings, for now the couple participates in Mass online, but they long for the day when they can do so in person and receive the Eucharist together.

Dustin Pollock is determined to wait and to cling to the love of God personalized in that “hug” three years ago. He is, he said, “hanging on to faith and hope but feeling lost in the shuffle.”

“I’ve been trying to stay in touch with the Lord through prayer and meditation, but it’s hard,” he added. “It doesn’t feel like the end, but it almost feels like the end. When am I going to be able to go back to Mass and participate?”

As a service provider at a tire store, Pollock is performing essential work and as such still goes in every day and interacts with hundreds of people. Not knowing if he is unintentionally being exposed to the virus is difficult.

“Silently, in my head, I am constantly praying,” he said. “It’s so stressful every day; if I didn’t have my faith I would be going crazy. I couldn’t make it through without it.”

With his newfound faith, “Now I have something to rely on; I can give myself and my will up to God and let him drive,” he said. “Before, I thought I was controlling everything. Now, I always have someone to turn to even when there is no one physically there.”

One way or the other, he will be baptized as soon as possible, as his baptism and future membership in the Church is very precious to Pollock.

“All of the tribulations I’ve gone through have all strengthened my faith,” he said. “I’m definitely not the person I was three years ago, and I definitely look forward to moving forward in this. I will forever be in this faith. Every step of the journey is worth it; the Eucharist is the greatest thing that the Lord has given us.”